Merlin's blog

[Disclosure: I'm a consultant on the OmniFocus project. You can blame me for having requested any of the features you don't like.]

Oh, man. It's so nice to lift the veil on this one. It's been like I knew you guys were getting the big Lego Millennium Falcon for Christmas, but I couldn't tell you until Santa had gone back up the chimney (in his black mock turtleneck and jeans). Anyway.

There's lots to digest from today's WWDCStevenote -- not least of which was the dramatic announcement of a 3G iPhone for only $199. But you'll be hearing lots about that in a million places. I want to talk about my first impressions about something even closer to my heart that's at least different this time around, if not entirely new.

Today, Steve announced the upcoming release of Apple's MobileMe service, which will replace the existing .Mac service at the same price of $99/year for an Individual account, while adding some new features, including:

Individual account quota doubled to 20GB of storage, including email and files (.Mac currently offers 10GB at the same price)

MS Exchange-like "push" syncing between applications on multiple Macs as well as your iPhone, via the MobileMe "cloud"

As someone who's had strong feelings, high hopes, and occasional disappointmens with .Mac, I'm going to spend some time over the next few weeks looking into what these changes will mean for the always-on knowledge worker -- particularly now that the service is clearly moving toward tighter integration with iPhones, the iPod Touch, and web-based usage. But first, just a few things to note here (quickly and on first impression):

Research Brief: Minorities Dominate Use of New Media - "According to the analysis, minorities have a higher regular usage of new media than Whites across all media types. They are more likely to use iPods, text on cell phones, play video games, use video/picture phones, instant messaging online and watch video on cell phones."

We're sorry this is late; we really meant to post it sooner - "Most people's New Year's resolutions are doomed to failure...Most self-help books have it completely wrong when they say perfectionism is at the root of procrastination...Procrastination can be explained by a single mathematical equation" In keeping with my return to posting here, yes: that's meta-research on procrastination. Swish.

And, in passing, a personal note: many thanks to you for your patience while I took some time to see to other projects; my more normal (which is to say, irregular, by most “pro blog” standards) habit of posting to 43f when I have something to share or say restarts now. I’m grateful for your hanging with me.

Clutterers Anonymous dot Net - "Clutter is anything we don't need, want, or use that takes our time, energy or space, and destroys our serenity."

Spark 35: Your Digital Legacy - I'll be a regular contributor to the CBC's wonderful Spark (podcast). My first segment with Nora Young is on the basics of backup. (Hint: Next Christmas, send Uncle Joe a DVD with those hard-copy photos)

TwitterSnooze! v0.13 - "TwitterSnooze is inspired by a Merlin Mann post and was written by Andrew Parker." Yay, nice! I think silent "snoozing" should be part of every social app. Warning, though; if your snoozed friend is the brittle type, note that re-following them will generate an email that gives you away. Caveat Twittor. [via del/andrewdparker]

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